Saturday, June 7, 2014

The Demise of the Free Miners

We've seen time and again the futility of resistance to the New Order and its Code. Countless anti-Order resistance movements have sprouted like weeds, only to wither away.

One of the new crop of rebels was a fellow named Xan Staraider, founder of the "Union of Free Miners". His particular angle was to encourage miners to become "white knights", disrupting ganks and hunting the gankers.

As many rebels do, Xan added to the clutter of the internet by creating his own blog. Xan called the carebears of highsec to arms, offering a six-week contest for white knights to pop New Order pods. By the end of the second week, the rebel army had destroyed a grand total of two pods. Both were empty. Xan celebrated the victory.

The New Order and their monkeys have once again laid siege to another system of HighSec, and again they are attacking freighters. This time however our regional fleet was already in place before their attack started and the regional commander had the foresight to set up warning beacons at the gates entering the system.

The White Knights were better prepared this time as well. The Eagle’s Talons are grabbing them by the nose, while the other anti-gankers, minions, bush ninjas, and solo-White Knights are kicking them in the ass.

A lot of New Order pods have been exploding in Aufay.

Xan breathlessly reported the daring deeds of the white knights. Multiple anti-Order resistance movements rallied together to stop the slaughter of freighters in the Aufay system. (In the next Kills of the Week post, we'll see how they fared.) Judging by the blog post, the rebels had won the Battle of Aufay. Xan concluded his battle report by claiming that "a lot" of New Order pods were destroyed.

...Which turned out to be one more pod. This time, the pod wasn't empty; it contained a 1.5 million isk implant. Things were escalating. For nearly two years we've been told that the carebears of highsec would "eventually" stand up to us. At long last, was this the end of the New Order?

No, it was the end of the Union of Free Miners. Let's see where this resistance movement went wrong.

Xan was originally a member of the 75th Star Ranger Regiment corp, one of the few members of the Blackwatch. alliance. This opened his army of white knights to the threat of wardecs.

Amused by the rebel, some of our Agents decided to wardec him. Seen here, one of Xan's Daredevils.

More than one corp took an interest in Xan and his rebels' alliance. Among the Code enforcers was the notorious Cannibal Kane, who made short work of the uppity carebears.

Wardecs continued to pour in against the Blackwatchdot alliance corps. It was too much for them. Meanwhile, the success of the anti-Free Miner wardecs was paralleled by more anti-rebel wardecs from other good citizens of highsec.

By gathering together in the Aufay system, the rebels were efficiently identified and wardecced. As seen in the EVEmail above, the rebels were also slaughtered. Some of them used cheap anti-gank ships, but others made the mistake of using expensive PvP ships, operating under the assumption that they could safely attach themselves to a bunch of CONCORD killmails. Instead, they got their corps and alliances wardecced and lost everything.

After the rebel defeat at Aufay, the Xan Staraider character was biomassed and his Union of Free Miners was disbanded. Xan explained his decision to quit EVE as follows:

Wow, I am truly amazed at how quickly things can fall apart. As some of you may know the white knights have been dealing with perpetual wardecs from the New Order’s mercs. After going out of town for a couple days my son decided that the best way to get dad to stop chasing pirates was to delete my guys. Needless to say it worked. And yes I have changed my password now. I petitioned CCP to resurrect my guy but I fear it is too late. The alliance that we had worked so hard to create had fallen apart over-night.

I talked to Max last night and after a heated exchange he made it clear that he is not giving me back control of Blackwatch. He has turned the alliance from white knight bad-asses, to bounty hunters.

He expressed outrage at having been wardec’d constantly for 2 months and having very little to show for it. The total cost of the war was over 6 billion in ISK, and a third of his team. It is very hard to get out and stop gankers when mercs are trying to shoot at you. He was equally outraged that other people in the Anti-Ganking community could not do more to help.

Personally I don’t know who else there was and what else they could do. Most people have the burning hatred for CODE, so if anything could have been done, it was done. I also understand Max’s frustration, the second time Kane wardecd the Star Rangers, all my co-workers just stopped playing.

So this is it for me. My alt has a 1v1 duel with Capt Starfox tonight in low sec and I have 2 more people I need to send ISK to in order to make amends. Then I’m done. I’m switching to Star Trek Online. I wish the Anti-gankers the best of luck. I hope you keep fighting.

Fly fearless! Fly Deadly!

- Xan

Xan's story about his son biomassing his characters (as opposed to the more common phenomenon of carebears rage-quitting without the assistance of their progeny) may or may not be true. If his son really did annihilate Xan and his alts, then perhaps he qualifies as an honorary Agent of the New Order. Lest we feel sympathy for Xan's plight, let us not forget that he violated the EULA by account sharing. It's appropriate that this happened at the time of the Kronos expansion, since in Greek mythology Kronos overthrew his father, and was later overthrown by his own son.

In any event, the demise of the Union of Free Miners was inevitable. It happens to every anti-Order organization. At their core, the carebears just want to be AFK, face no challenges whatsoever, and to play a single-player game. Those aren't exactly ingredients for a successful team. Also, they lack the Code. Big mistake on their part.

To be honest, I'm calling bullshit on the story of his son deleting his characters.After you press the button, it takes 9 hours for it to complete its cycle (if I'm not mistaken, it's been a while), during which the character is non-playable.

Usually nothing gets deleted from databases anyway. I've heard that you can petition to get biomassed characters restored. CCP would rather you play than not play all things considered.Unless of course, as James implied, you were account sharing.

DJ, Blog was started March 17th of this year. Lets check the page rank after I've been around for over 2 years like minerhumping., Funny how you guys always leave those details out if its not in your favor.

At their core, the carebears just want to be AFK, face no challenges whatsoever, and to play a single-player game.</quoteExactly. If you decide to mine, you can't really fight and if you can organize and fight, you won't be mining.

Experienced fighters know futility of any attempt to "stop the CODE" within existing game mechanics, so they wouldn't even bother besides giving standard advices on "have a better tank and watch the local", which won't be heard anyway since miners will ALWAYS prefer higher yield.

Thus, it's amusing to watch attempt to organize anti-ganking movements, and it's always fun to gank anti-gankers (or to fail their plans in other ways), but there's no real threat to the CODE besides internal reasons, which I hope won't ever come to existence.

Part of the continuing failure of groups that oppose the New Order is the toxicity of the communities they've formed, the lack of organization and the lack of leadership.

I don't really blame them for their lack of organization or leadership. Time and time again I've heard upper level "leadership" in the Anti-CODE groups lament about the handful of pilots who are actually willing to do more than just complain in their various channels. They bring what ships they want, do what they want, and go home happy with whoring on a CONCORD killmail or grabbing up an empty pod. They're faced with trying organize and lead people who actually believe these things constitute some form of victory.

The caustic nature of their communities ensures that those who might best advise them are silenced and ostracized. While a hatred of emergent gameplay within the sandbox might unite them in this channel or that channel, more often than not they turn that hatred against each other. The witch hunts that go on in some of their channels are comedic at best, near sociopathic (a term I'm no longer afraid of throwing around given its abundant use by the carebears) at worst.

A very small number of anti-CODE folks might come up with a plan -- maybe even a good plan -- but a unified purpose as those of the New Order have, the organization to pull off large scale operations and the logistical capacity to back them up will always trump the disorganized attempts of our enemies.

We see the worst of carebear behavior time and time again here in the posts of James 315. I think anyone who steps up and makes an effort to lead such people will find in near impossible, regardless of how skilled a leader they might be. And I think the spiteful nature of the community itself will consistently undermine any serious efforts.

You totally nailed it. Hang out for 15 mins in minerbumping related channels and see discussion of fittings, game mechanics, casual lol and fun, and generally educated chat.

Hang in for 15 mins in any of the "anti-ganking" channels, and I'm sorry to be blunt - but it's like a a bunch of sperged out 13 year olds screaming at eachother on xbox live. Really, give it 15 mins - you'll see what I mean. It's awful.

This is the #1 problem with the "anti-ganking" community - the intense toxicity of it.

Well said. I spy on the anti-gank channel and have seen all of this. But I think more so than toxicity is a fundamental misunderstanding of EVE. These players are convinced that highsec = safesec and are confused and angry when confronted with the reality that these are not synonymous. This really isn't that surprising given that every other MMO acculturates them to this. Of course their "solution" is to turn highsec into safesec.

Perfect example. I was lurking the channel last night and some scrub was complaining about being "ganked" in lowsec. He had accepted a mission that sent him into a lowsec system and someone "came into his mission" and popped him. His solution - have the mission gates lock so no one can come into them! Keep in mind he is talking about making lowsec safe. I know this is an n=1, but it illustrates the mindset.

Some of this needs to be laid at the door of CCP. There is nothing in the tutorials or career mission arc that clues new players into the realities of Eve. I think if CCP at least made some effort at this education we might see some modest improvement.

Aria is ranting because she was using AG as her personal platform to brag and she though everyone liked her but she was hated because they knew who she was. She was allowed in AG for our purposes and not hers.

Of course she is bitter, she has no where to go now and MB is full of bunch of whiny no hopes and as much as she is brainwashed by code she has a few untainted ones so her losing AG and her 'friends' hurts her because she obviously has nothing else in her life - very sad but same old new order story and that is winning?

BTW, the original post of Xan was deleted, yet Google cache still has it.I'm curious whether he'll invoke his "right to be forgotten" now...http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:YpGGnos7cHYJ:freeminers.wordpress.com/+&cd=5&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

Ahoy there from a Free Conglomerate anon! Y'all preached your interpretation of the truth, allow me to offer my perspective.

Even within the 'alliance', and I do use the term under advisement, most of us called bullshit on Xan's kid biomassing Xan's character (and still do). It had seemed like he'd cut and run, and even post-explanation, it seems like a poor excuse. But such is the turn of events.

And I'm not even going to go into what we thought of the rest of the so-called movement, of which we formed the bulk of the muscle element. Actions speak louder than words, right? Well, let's just say that having a loud bark don't mean having a nasty bite. I'm looking at YOU, those in the head which did not join up and participate, who are no doubt looking at this right now.

"We will charge valiantly... and be butchered valiantly! And afterwards men in tall hats and gold watch fobs will thump their chest and say what a brave charge it was." A quote from 1993's Gettysburg, and quite appropriate, I believe.

The rest of us, we had our orders, and for the most part we carried them out. Getting blown up is simply a part of the game, right? Teaches you what to do and what not to do in the future, assuming you take on the lessons of the newly-found experience. Can't say we didn't have fun in the process.

And having fun is ultimately the point of the game, right? So, in that regard, the group succeeded. While many of us have decided to move on, we'll be back.

Y'all have a pleasant day.

Oh, and I'll happily mine without a permit. Ain't no way you're gonna convince me otherwise. Ain't no reason anyone else ought to listen to you either.

I've got almost 8,500 reasons in the form of dead barges why people should purchase permits. I've got over 5,000 reasons in the form of Exhumers why people should purchase permits. Another 11,000 reasons in the form of capsules and even 210 reasons in the form of multi-billion ISK freighters.

But the biggest reason for people to listen to the New Order is those who don't are going to find themselves on the losing side of EVE history. Because we're right. And we have the might -- which is only growing -- to enforce our views on others, which is entirely in keeping with the spirit of the game.

Aria is right in two ways. One Eve is not a theme park MMO where people should expect full safety doing anything. If the "safesec" mentality wins Eve will not be Eve and will be as boring as watching paint dry. Honestly if you take out the risk and there are better games with more to both do and see. Struggle is what makes Eve awesome.

My favorite gameplay has as much to do with outsmarting my opponents as it does with with blowing up spaceships.

I can think of a few examples where certain people and organisations have prevailed against 'might', but I don't think the carebears have the smarts to pull that off. At least, I'm sure someone is hoping not.

And choosing your enemies and friends in this wonderfully bad game is quite important. It's also necessary to have a pocket of space where you can make as much ISK as you can go through in a week(end).

Sadly though the afk-mentality won't change and I THINK I've found the reason why.

I created a character a few weeks ago on a trial account and experienced Eve as a new player all over again. What I took away from it was that mining was easy, instant Isk and with very little reason to learn what tank, transversal, gun and missile range and everything else.

Now we are all mature enough to realise how important industry is to the world and fun that we have, but if mining was introduced when an account was upgraded to full from trial; would that not lead to a more balanced viewpoint of how Eve works, instead of sitting at a belt training nothing but industrial skills and never talking to anyone unless they make the first contact? Alas, with the number of poor quality CEO's the main conversation would be about mining and selling to the corp, without any proper lessons in dscans, tanking, overview setup etc.

Perhaps this suggestion should be taken to the CSM - would it cost trials? Would anyone leave Eve if they didn't experience the wholesome fun that mining entails? Is there any real downside, considering the mining tutorials require you to mine a non-marketable ore, so it's not like the minerals/ore factor in to the economy at any level.

This actually seems perfectly reasonable. Were CCP to implement your idea (not to mention better explain the mechanics), it would, at least in part, aid new players in figuring out where the real meat and potatoes of the game lies.

Because you do not posses the intellect to understand the many possibilities, does not mean CCP or the rest of the world are the same as you. Thankfully, there are many devs at CCP who have some pretty nice idea regarding PvE / mining stuff in EvE. If you knew how to interact with people you migh tbe able to find some of this stuff out. Careful though, it may involve socializing.

That you can see no further than mining = Player vs Rock shows how truly bad you must be at this game. That you cannot see any possible way to make mining more PvP oriented or entertaining is truly a sad reflection upon yourself. It's no wonder you prefer to remain anonymous.

Xan was a 3 month old player so had no clue but you think you squashed a major resistance? Maxime is a big mouth miner with no combat skills and no clue either. Both let stupid war-deccers stop them when they should have dropped corp and ignored them but neither made any impact and never would.

If that is winning and a major blow to the resistance then LMAO but I would call it Jimmy getting desperate again and trying to drum up a non-story about non-entities and all his zombies following his every word and believing it! Too much LOL.

I let Ean read this, and he laughed his ass off. He liked the idea of "honorary knight of the New Order" and say's he wants to join up with you guys (he's a little more Chaotic-Neutral than I am). I told him you guys don't take teenagers! lol.

Working on a new site right now called "Xan's Klingon Academy". LOTS of fun! Yall should come over and play some time. ;)

I did not know this was going to be a story. but I am somewhat irked by how this post went. The guys from Blackwatch did something that 99% from those AG folks are afraid of doing. They tried to fight...

Yes it was pointless against me and yes it caused alot of turmoil within the alliance but they do not deserve our ridicule they deserve a GF.

So everybody needs to get their heads out of their asses and say Good Fight. The rest of AG however is still a joke.

I, too, enjoyed exchanging weapons fire with the good folks under Maxine's leadership. I especially enjoyed whelping an Enyo in Amarr in a fleet fight when I had a -2.02 sec status and my guys needed more firepower against an impressive fleet comp they'd managed to pull together against us. GF, and enjoy your time in RVB.

I agree with Kane. The comments on this post have gone a bit anti-ganking channel. Ridicule and scorn. Yes the whole my son storybis daft but the others at least tried to get involved. A bit. I thought you guys were all about encouraging PvP. A gf and a better luck next time would have been a better sign off.

The "Good Fight" at the end of a battle is the martial art equivalent of a bow. It's a sign of respect between two warriors.

The New Order use "Good Fight" as a means of getting under a victims skin. To extract more miner tears. It would be like me going into my dojo and sneaking up on a white or yellow belt and kicking them in the crotch. Then bowing while they roll around on the ground, and even asking them, "Where is my bow?"

There are exceptions to this of course. Very few though. As a group, mercs and other pirate corps have more honor than these guys.

Honestly, I deleted my own account and ran to STO. It's really where I should have been in the first place, and I deeply apologize to all those poor souls I misled for so long. I can only hope the New Order can begin to repair the damage I have done.

And for the record I was a 3 month old character, with no skills and am still learning how to even play the game! How in the world could I have mis-led anyone? I was in charge of recruitment and the website, for a team of 3 corporations, each of whom had a equal say so in our operations. I think we had, at most, 40 people total, and we caused this much havok! Not bad.